THE GOD-MAN The Life, Journeys and Work of Meher Baba with an ...

- energy does not manifest itself; yet I still exist. So I am not energy.THE FINAL DECLARATION 241"'I' might be mind. But the same applies here. When I am unconscious, in sound sleep, and the mind isstill, the mind is not functioning, but I still exist; so I am also not mind. Then who am I? Try to grasp this.Let us try to understand what cannot be understood. I am that which is not body, not energy, not mind."In sound sleep, what do you experience? Nothing. That is you. Why? If I am not body, energy, mind,then I am that which has no body, energy, mind; and only sound sleep means that. Only sound sleepanswers the question. In sound sleep you are not body, not energy, not mind, yet the body is there, energyis there, mind is there. Only the consciousness of body, of energy, of mind is not there."I now go back to the first point and return to this later. The original state of the beginningless Beginningwas the infinite sound-sleep state of the Infinite One. In the beginningless Beginning, when there was nocreation, no universe - not even nothing - there was only the Is state of 'God'."Then started the Ten States of God, which you will find described in God Speaks. During the processesof evolution and reincarnation, impressions were gathered; body, energy and mind developed, and the soul,in spite of its infinite state, experienced itself as the finite body, as energy, and as mind, due to theseimpressions."Now we return. In sound sleep, Malcolm is not conscious of body, energy, mind, and only Malcolm asreal Malcolm exists. The important point is that Malcolm in the sound-sleep state exists as 'I am Malcolm'and is unconscious of this 'I-ness'. The ego in the sound-sleep or absolute-unconscious state is called 'thenatural ego'. There are three kinds of ego; the first is the natural ego."What wakes you up from sound sleep? The impressions that lie on your mind. They say, 'Malcolm,wake up! We want to be spent'. So Malcolm wakes up and spends the impressions through thinking,desiring, acting. And Malcolm, while spending the impressions, thinks 'I am this body'. This'!' is called the'false ego'. Let us not go too deeply into this. Malcolm, who really is Malcolm, and not this body,according to impressions takes one form after another, and goes on spending new impressions. But that is adifferent chapter."While spending old impressions, new impressions are formed, which also need spending; so, ever newforms are taken, according to good and bad impressions - man, woman, beautiful, ugly, rich, poor, strong,weak, and so forth. They are like different clothes, which